It was a big day for the Penn State football program on Saturday with the announcement that Manny Diaz had been named the new defensive coordinator. The former Miami head coach is a big splash hire for James Franklin and the Nittany Lions in an attempt to replace Brent Pry, who left Penn State to become a head coach at Virginia Tech. After a bit of a whirlwind day that drew plenty of positive reactions from every angle you could imagine, Diaz made his way to Happy Valley and stepped out to check out his new surroundings inside Beaver Stadium.
Penn State’s official Twiter account shared a short video following Diaz making his first walk out onto the field at Beaver Stadium and observed as he seemed to soak in the atmosphere in the empty Beaver Stadium. We can only imagine Diaz was picturing what it will be like to call the shots for the Penn State defense when the stadium is rocking and rolling for a big game against Ohio State or Michigan State, both making the trip to State College on next season’s Big Ten schedule.
📍🏠@Coach_MannyDiaz pic.twitter.com/etIvLNjqOB
— Penn State Football (@PennStateFball) December 12, 2021
It’s been quite a couple of weeks for Diaz with his messy removal as head coach at Miami. Miami seemingly left Diaz hanging while waiting to know for sure if it would be able to hire Mario Cristobal away from Oregon. Of course, Miami did hire Cristobal as their new head coach, leaving Diaz on the coaching market once again. Fortunately for Penn State, Diaz was ready to jump right back into the defensive coordinator saddle again, a position he had been widely respected in for quite some time before getting the chance to be a head coach for the Hurricanes.
Whether this ends up being a long-term coaching situation for Diaz or if he will be ready to give head coaching another chance should the right opportunity comes along in the next few years remains to be seen. But it does look as though Penn State will benefit in the short-term with Diaz coming to Penn State to serve as defensive coordinator.
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